The battle for the title of ‘greatest Christmas film of all time’ is an age-old debate that most film buffs feel very passionate about. Love Actually is always a favourite. Classics like Miracle on 34th Street and The Polar Express often get thrown into the mix. And there’s always that one Halloween enthusiast that tries to argue that The Nightmare before Christmas is in fact a Christmas film… Whatever your preference may be, I hope that I can convince you over the course of this article that The Holiday is undeniably the greatest Christmas film of all time.
Released in 2006 and directed by Nancy Meyers, The Holiday follows two women from opposite sides of the Atlantic who decide to swap houses for Christmas, having both been let down by cheating men. Kate Winslet plays the loveable Iris, a hopeless romantic living in a quaint cottage in Surrey who writes for the Daily Telegraph. Cameron Diaz plays Amanda, a fiercely independent woman who lives a rather more glamourous lifestyle in an LA mansion, producing movie trailers for the stars. While Diaz was more familiar with the rom-com genre, Winslet reportedly felt nervous about a role that did not require an accent or period dress. This obviously does not translate into the film and I would argue that the emotion she shows far exceeds her performances in more popular films like The Titanic.
The film is wrapped up in the magic and glamour of Hollywood which, for a film addict like me, makes it all the more captivating. The narrative has this meta quality about it where Jack Black trawls the aisles of a ‘Blockbuster’ shop singing iconic movie soundtracks while the masterful Hans Zimmer writes the soundtrack for the film. Meanwhile, the jaded producer Arthur Abbott is one of my favourite characters of all time, partly because Eli Wallach simply seems to play himself. Here we have an iconic 90-year old actor whose career peaked in the Golden Age of Hollywood with films such as The Good the Bad and the Ugly talking about those very years that he lived through.
But we can’t talk about The Holiday without mentioning the two leading male characters of the film. Iris and Amanda may have had their fair share of heartbreak and disappointment but if karma does exist then my god do they get their reward. Jude Law plays Graham, a book editor and a single father, raising his two daughters whilst impossibly balancing dating and owning a cow. Jack Black plays Miles, a film composer who has a poor track record with women but who really is ‘an incredibly decent man’. Both are impossibly virtuous and don’t possess the typical flaws that we might expect from a love interest. They are rare genuine ‘good guys’ within the filmic universe who unfortunately provide impossible expectations for the rest of us.
This is a film directed by a woman and helmed by women, before feminist movies like Barbie could even be imagined. It provides us with so many empowering lines that teach us to be the ‘leading lady’ of our own lives and embrace the unexpected. While we are provided with a typical Hollywood ‘happy ending’, there is still a strong sense of ambiguity; what will happen when the two women return home? Can love cross continents when the realities of life get in the way? But unlike so many successful romantic comedies, The Holiday doesn’t feel the need to answer these questions and it certainly doesn’t try to wrap them up in a disappointing sequel. Instead we are left to decide for ourselves.
Put quite simply, I love this film. Yes, the plot may be rather predictable and some of the lines are incredibly corny but, in the spirit of Iris Simpkins, perhaps we should all be looking for corny in our lives.
Image Credit: MovieDb
